D F I A C T I V I T I E S Committee Project Fund Awards Announced The DFI Board of Trustees established the Committee Project Fund (CPF) in 2011 to support DFI committees, with four new projects being awarded in 2020. The CPF also reached a milestone this year by awarding over $1 million in funding for DFI committee projects. The CPF was established after recognizing that attaining some committee goals can exceed the expected contributions and resources of volunteer members. The CPF provides funding for technical committee projects that advance the state of practice and understanding of deep foundations and produce a usable deliverable. All project budgets include significant in-kind contributions from the researchers and associated groups, which are estimated to exceed $3 million. Congratulations to the DFI technical committees who were awarded funding this year, selected from 11 proposals seeking funding. The projects from the committees on drilled shafts, seismic and lateral loads, grouting, and soil mixing were selected for a total award amount of $117,199 (as listed in the table). Committee proposals were reviewed and endorsed by committee members prior to submission to DFI for consideration. Committee endorsement indicates that the committee deemed the project/ research approaches as outlined in the proposal to be technically valid, viable and necessary to advance the industry. The Project Fund Review Committee involves a multi- disciplinary and geographically diverse group of eight active DFI members. The review committee ranked and recommended 2020 proposals for award potential based on the following criteria, as appropriate to the scope of the project: • Benefits to the deep foundations industry (broad impact) • Innovation • Timeliness/relevance/immediacy of impact from results • Quality of proposal (clarity, focus) • Value of the deliverable • Probability of achieving proposal goal Deliverables from completed projects are available for download from the DFI website under the ‘Publications’ and ‘Awards’ tabs. Scopes of work for projects in progress are also listed. The Request for Proposal for 2021 funding is on the Committee Project Fund webpage at www.dfi.org/awardslectures.asp?cpf . All proposals must be submitted through and endorsed by the appropriate technical committee. Unsolicited proposals and proposals to develop proprietary systems will not be accepted or considered for funding. Proposers with research ideas are encouraged to join DFI and become actively engaged in the related DFI technical committees. Proposals for 2021 funding are due December 1, 2020. Please contact Mary Ellen Bruce Large, P.E., D.GE, DFI director of technical activities, at [email protected] for more information. Committee Drilled Shaft Project Scope Shear Magnification in Rock- Socketed Piles - Part 2: Numerical and Parametric Drilled Shaft, Seismic and Lateral Loads International Grouting Combined Effects of Lateral Spreading and Superstructure Inertia Deliverable DFI Journal paper, presentations at DFI and other industry events, input to future industry guidance documents Technical report, including design example; DFI Journal paper; and presentations at DFI and other industry conferences DIGGS Scheme for Rock Grouting Data Transfer Open source data schema, web and magazine articles describing implementation and future opportunities Soil Mixing Continued Research on the Effect of Curing Stress Comprehensive research report, Deep Foundations magazine article, presentations at industry events Lead Researcher Anne Lemnitzer, Ph.D., P.E., University of California, Irvine Arash Khosravifar, Ph.D., P.E., Portland State University Funding Award $ 30,000 $ 29,999 Allen Cadden, P.E., D.GE, Schnabel Engineering $ 27,500 George Onorato, P.E., GEI Consultants $ 29,700 DEEP FOUNDATIONS • MAY/JUNE 2020 • 25
